Dear Chris
Thanks, sounds like it is worth a read.
Do you think that power law scaling helps us practically? Is it just a
phenomenon which is "very interesting", or does it help us to understand
complex systems any better? Also will being able to measure it help us
"prove" anything?
Perhaps its just that I am not a mathematician and perhaps I had better
shut up until I have read the book!
Regards
Dan
On 12 February 2002 08:49, Chris Burton [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
wrote:
> Hi there
>
> Glad some of you have started mailing again after Krysia's and my rebuke
about threading messages. Thought I'd shut you up for too long - even DK
has gone quiet!
>
> I've just read Ubiquity by Mark Buchanan (now in paperback from
Amazon.co.uk for less than a tenner) and an intriguing read. Basically he
takes the idea of self-organised criticality - the sandpile phenomenon -
for a walk into all kind of areas (forest fires, population change, history
of ideas) in an easy to read way. OK my "easy to read" is someone
cleverer's pitifully simplistic but hey...
>
> The attraction is that power law scaling as the marker of complexity /
criticality IS measurable - if you get enough number to do it with.
>
> Anyone else read it? Or anything else worthwhile lately?
>
>
> Chris
> (Listowner and general saddo)
>
> --
> Chris Burton, [log in to unmask] on 12/02/2002
>
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